The Dreamliner's Battery Maker Also Works On The International Space Station

GS Yuasa, the Japanese corporation that supplies the lithium-ion
battery cells used in Boeing's Dreamliner airplane, also holds
the contract to supply battery cells to the International Space
Station, according
to Bloomberg.

Problems with the lithium-ion batteries in several Dreamliners
are suspected to have caused a fire in a 787 in Boston last week
and necessitated an emergency landing in Japan on Wednesday.

Those issues prompted the FAA to issue a rare emergency
airworthiness directive, leading to the worldwide grounding of
the 50 Dreamliners Boeing has
delivered so far.

But the batteries GS Yuasa supplies for the International Space
Station are not the same as those it makes for Boeing, NASA
spokesperson Josh Byerly told Bloomberg,
as the ISS batteries are designed for use in space.

Byerly added that NASA will not reconsider its relationship with
GS Yuasa until the FAA investigation into the source of the
problems with the Dreamliner is complete.